Healthcare Biz Update: Pfizer Wins EU APPROVAL, StemCells’ GOOD News

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. (NYSE:VRX) made an agreement on Monday to purchase Medicis Pharmaceutical Corporation (NYSE:MRX) for $2.6 billion. The latter supplies dermatological and aesthetic pharmaceutical products, and RBC believes that it’s a good strategic fit that could add 10 percent to Valeant’s bottom line. The acquisition offer of $44 per share represents a 39 percent windfall to Medicis’ Friday close, and the transaction is the most recent in a very long list of purchases for Valeant, which has secured approximately 50 deals since Michael Pearson became chief executive in 2008. Canaccord is minimizing the possibility of higher bids from other competitors, mostly because the fit is thought to be appropriate for both firms and is supported by both boards.

Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) has won a marketing okay from the European Commission for its Inlyta drug for advanced kidney cancer in patients who did not respond to prior treatments with two other drugs, sunitinib or a cytokine. The approval adds to those already received from the FDA, Canada, Australia, Switzerland, Japan, and South Korea.

Shares of StemCells, Inc. (NASDAQ:STEM) spiked on word Monday that its HuCNS-SC treatment restored sensation in two out of three patients who had been left paralyzed by severe spinal cord injuries. The improvements came in a Phase I/II trial, and mark “the first time that neural stem cells have been transplanted as a potential therapeutic agent for spinal cord injury.”